European Commission Policies and Initiatives
Public Diplomacy towards Member-Countries and Candidate-Countries Communication with EU citizens and those of membership-aspiring countries reflects the majority of the Commission’s public diplomacy efforts. This communication is increasing in importance and is especially relevant after the rejection of the European Constitution by the referenda in France and the Netherlands. The responsibility for carrying out productive dialogue with the public in the member-countries is assigned to the Directorate General (DG) Communication.It is the main planning entity which coordinates the efforts of all other DGs’ communication units into one joint output. The information campaigns directed to the publics within the EU aim at shaping a common European self-realization, citizenship and identity. They are also intended to educate about EU values and the continuous process of EU enlargement. According to the 20.07.2005 Action Plan to Improve Communicating Europe by the Commission,"This Commission has made communication one of the strategic objectives for its term of office, recognising it fully as a policy in its own right. … By working and planning together, the various Commission departments will improve the communication and image of this institution and of the European Union as a whole." However, The Action plan is not just about shaping an image but creating a deeper connection between the citizens of the EU and its institutions. "Communicating: EU policies and activities, as well as their impact on everyday lives, have to be communicated and advocated in a manner that people can understand and relate to if citizens are to follow political developments at the European level."http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/communication/pdf/communication_com_en.pdf More importantly, the Action Plan shows the Commission’s understanding of public diplomacy as a form of dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation. "Communication is more than information: it establishes a relationship and initiates a dialogue with European citizens, it listens carefully and it connects to people. It is not a neutral exercise devoid of value, it is an essential part of the political process. … Listening: communication is a dialogue, not a one-way street. It is not just about EU institutions informing EU citizens but also about citizens expressing their opinions so that the Commission can understand their perceptions and concerns. Europe’s citizens want to make their voices in Europe heard and their democratic participation should have a direct bearing on EU policy formulation and output."http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/communication/pdf/communication_com_en.pdf The commitment to public diplomacy as a two-way relationship is an important step taken by the Commission. The understanding that a successful political strategy should take into consideration public concerns and expectations is a fundamental public diplomacy principle. It is significant for every public diplomacy strategy, whether it is applied to internal or foreign policies. Public opinion and participation in the political life of the Union is playing an especially vital role in relation to the ongoing enlargement of the EU. For the successful realization of this process, the European Commission is aided by the DG Enlargement.All communication and information work is carried out within the framework of the Communication Strategy for Enlargement. The Communication Strategy is another example of public diplomacy as a two-way process. It is a dialogue engaging both EU citizens and those of applicant countries. The Strategy conveys the Commission’s believe that it is not sufficient to simply create an image of the EU abroad, but it is also essential to educate EU publics about the outside world, in this case the prospective member countries. It outlines concrete key objectives in member-states and candidate-countries looking to "generate dialogue with a broad section of public opinion and dispel misapprehensions about the enlargement process."http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/communication/index.htm In this campaign the Commission’s goal is to promote understanding by providing objective information and “eschewing any messages which could be misconstrued as "propaganda"http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/communication/index.htm. The Strategy follows a decentralized approach by addressing the general public through various channels and in a specific manner, answering the needs of each individual member or candidate country. The Commission is working in cooperation with political institutions – the European Parliament, governments, parliament and regional assemblies; business and industry – business leaders, trade unions, professional associations; and civil society – non-governmental organizations, religious and intellectual bodies, universities, teachers in secondary and higher education. In addition, the Commission engages in direct dialogue with the public through the Internet server EUROPA, the TV service "Europe by Satellite," the question and answer service EUROPE DIRECT. Furthermore, the EUVP and other visitors programs for journalists, officials, teachers etc. have been expanded to include the candidate countries. Many conferences and debates on enlargement issues as well as speeches and visits of EU officials have been organized to further the goals of the Strategy. For example, by 2002 Guenter Verheugen had visited each candidate-country at least twice, for a total of 40 missions. EU Information Centers have been established in the capitals of all candidate countries between October 1998 (Prague) and September 2001 (Sofia). They are responsible for answering all EU-related questions, organizing press conferences, lectures seminars etc. A large part of their budget is spent on publication of brochures such as "EU Glossary," "ABC of Community Law," "Your Business and the Euro" to name a few. Cultural events have also been utilized as part of the strategy. They include celebrations of "Europe days" and "Europe weeks," yearly film festivals, concerts, language fairs to name a few. The Strategy also provides for a feed-back mechanism to assess the evolution of public opinion. Such instruments are the Eurobarometer surveys and the monitoring and analysis of media coverage of enlargement issues by the Commission’s Representations and Delegations. In addition, some Delegations promote coverage of EU issues with competitions such as the annual Robert Schuman Award for Journalists, awarded since 1998 by the Delegations in Sofia and Budapest, or the Annual Media Award in Estonia. The information efforts of the Commission are also reinforced by individual communication strategies of each candidate country. Thus the two-way communication effect is fully achieved. The cooperation with governments in the framework of a general and individual communication strategies allow for sharing of experience and distribution of tasks and enhance the work of both the Commission and the prospective member countries. (For an example of an individual communication strategy go to Bulgaria's E.U. Preparation Communication Strategy) All this being considered it could be concluded that the EU communication strategies utilize a wide range of public diplomacy policies to achieve their goals. They also pursue mutual understanding and cooperation in their approach to communication and information. Therefore, the EU communication strategies could be conceived as well-developed public diplomacy initiatives. Such strategies have currently only been instituted towards member- and candidate-countries, but they could serve as a foundation for developing similar capability with third-countries as well. Further Reading: WHITE PAPER ON A EUROPEAN COMMUNICATION POLICY, European Commission, Brussels, 1.2.2006 European Neighborhood Policy and Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Outside the borders of Europe, the Commission is building a close partnership with its neighbors to the east and south. This cooperation develops within the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed). A significant part of both partnerships has been devoted to public diplomacy type activities with participating countries. The ENP is a recent initiative, which aims to expand EU presence and engagement in its "new neighbors" after the last round of enlargement and strengthen further the relations established earlier under Euromed. According to Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, "We share a past and many common interests with our southern and eastern neighbors, from trade to cultural exchanges, from migration issues to environmental cooperation. … It will be a key vehicle for promoting our European values, and sharing the fruits of the EU’s enlargement to the benefit of our citizens and our neighbors."http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/world/enp/index_en.htm The ENP encompasses Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. One of the four main areas of cooperation within the policy is the development of people-to-people contacts. The ENP could potentially play a central role in a future EU public diplomacy strategy with these countries, especially if it draws upon the rich experience gained in regional cooperation on the basis of Euromed. Euromed or the so called Barcelona Process represents a broad mechanism for public diplomacy type activities. Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge describe it as "arguably the greatest single public diplomacy initiative ever conceived." The partnership provides for a wide framework of relations – political, economic, environmental, social and cultural. Within this framework the EU works on a bilateral level with each of the partners – Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey; and on a regional level addressing common problems and goals in the Mediterranean. The Social, Cultural and Human Partnership represents the public diplomacy dimension within Euromed. It is again an example of a two-way process of dialogue and cooperation. Its goal is "the rapprochement between peoples through a social, cultural and human partnership aimed at encouraging understanding between cultures and exchanges between civil societies" . To serve this purpose various programs have been instituted. The goal of the Euromed Audiovisual Program is to "contribute to mutual understanding between the peoples of the EU and the southern Mediterranean region by highlighting their common values and the richness of the region’s audiovisual and cultural diversity. The programme supports regional projects in the field of television and cinema, particularly in the following areas: preservation of archives, production and coproduction and distribution and circulation of audiovisual products." For instance, as part of Euromed Audiovisual, a 3-year project called "Cinema Med" was initiated in March of 2000. The first phase of this project introduced a festival of Arabic films from the Mediterranean region into seven European cities from Palermo to Edinburgh. The purpose of the festival was to serve as a forum between directors and the European audience and thus provide a window to the Arabic world and help the distribution of Arabic films through Europe. The second phase was a screenplay seminar organized by two European authors for two Arabic Universities – Marrakesh and Beirut. The last phase was dedicated to the work of the famous Egyptian filmmaker Salah Abou Seif. Its purpose was to use European and Arabic film archives in order to restore and preserve the work of the author. The Euromed Heritage Program is "a strategy that would turn cultural heritage into a catalyst for cooperation throughout the Mediterranean." It was developed in 1996 and is aimed at uniting the 37 Mediterranean partners in the preservation and common appreciation of the region’s extraordinary historic and cultural heritage. In addition, through projects such as Museums with no Frontiers: an Example of Learning about Each Other, the Euromed heritage program helped promote tourism and educate the European publics about their Mediterranean neighbors’ culture. The Euromed Youth Action Program focuses on youth exchanges, training and voluntary service (in NGOs for example). It "aims to facilitate the integration of young people into social and professional life and boost the development of a genuine civil society in all Mediterranean partners. It is also a key tool to promote communication, mutual tolerance and respect among young people across the region." The program has been very popular, since over 8 000 young people have participated by 2003. In addition, a sufficient portion of the MEDA (the financial framework for implementing Euromed) budget is dedicated to promoting higher education exchanges with all the Mediterranean partners. In this respect, the EU is employing its educational program Tempus-MED. NGOs are involved in a variety of projects under Euromed. One such initiative is the Euromed Civil Forum - a platform for non-governmental organizations in the region on the subjects of human rights, youth, women, volunteerism, migration, and the environment. Another important civil society initiative is a Seminar on the Status of Women in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. It "aims to help promote women’s rights and the democratic development of North African society by strengthening civil society organizations." Good examples of the way Euromed engages with society in partnership countries represent the Commission’s initiatives in Egypt such as the Arab Documentary Workshop Project – Arab TV Program on Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Euro-med Youth Awards in Cairo. In an effort to further the democratization of the region, the EU is also planning to launch an Arabic-language television channel. The channel would be operated by Euronews, the leading European news channel, and would introduce European ideas and the EU perspective on international news in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Euronews has already gained experience in such broadcasting since it used to have an Arabic service for two years in the end of the 1990s. An Arabic-language broadcast informing on the every-day political life and functioning of the EU institutions would not only aim at reforming the region but also build up an image for the European Union in the Mediterranean. Chief mediators of the Euromed policies in partner countries are the Commission’s Delegations. In addition to their ever-increasing role participation in managing the policies of the Barcelona process, the delegations have an important public diplomacy responsibility. They "play an active role in providing information on the partnership, and in promoting cultural activities, like dance festivals, film festivals, and other events that contribute to promoting awareness and understanding of different cultures." Delegations of the Commission The Delegations of the European Commission exercise a variety of communication and information activities such as the publication of brochures and newsletters, the organization of information centers, setting up of websites and information portals, and celebrations of Europe Day in each country etc. In particular, within countries applying for accession the delegations develop a wide network of activities aimed at educating about the EU institutions. Some authors consider the delegations to be much more involved in public diplomacy related activities than are traditional embassies. Michael Bruter in his Diplomacy Without a State: The External Delegations of the European Commission describes the delegations’ diplomacy as "consumer-oriented" in the sense that consumer services are the primary focus of the delegations’ efforts. These services directed towards non-institutional local actors include economic expansion (local businesses), regional development (local actors, NGOs, IGOs) and communication (local media, academia, general public). He notes that in general, as well as in each individual region, people providing services primarily directed towards non-institutional demand are over-represented compared to those working for institutional demand. He contributes this phenomenon to the fact that traditional diplomacy leaves consumer-oriented needs largely unsatisfied. As a result, the delegations found a niche in which to affirm their role and develop their activities. Another reason, according to Bruter, might be that most delegations were established very recently as compared to national embassies. The latter are now starting to consider the necessity of reforming their functions. The type of diplomacy practiced by the delegations appears, therefore, to represent as much a fundamental new trend in diplomatic activities as an individuality of their non-state based status. … The fact that most of their services are directed towards the private sector is the defining characteristic of the delegations. … The delegations provide information to the general public and academia via information centers and various media, descriptions of norms and conditions to business, and represent the "voice of Europe" to the local media. More generally, and in part without being able to control it, delegations generate symbols and images of "Europe" to the world. The Delegation of the European Commission to the USA presents a good example of an engaged public diplomacy strategy. As Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge point out, the EU delegation to Washington is one of the first to embrace the term "public diplomacy" in its work. They list four distinct areas of public diplomacy practice at the Delegation: "general perception-oriented public diplomacy (e.g. correcting American public misperceptions of contemporary Europe); specific issue public diplomacy (for instance, lobbying for the extension of the US visa waiver scheme to all 25 EU member states); co-operative EU-US public diplomacy (identifying ways of working with the US government on, for example, public diplomacy strategies in the Middle-East); competitive and conflictual EU-US public diplomacy (relating to issues of dispute between the EU and US such as the Airbus-Boeing rivalry or lifting of the EU-China arms ban)." The image of the EU in the US is the responsibility of the Press and Public Diplomacy Section. Its task is to promote awareness of the EU among the American public employing a wide variety of activities such as multimedia tours, speaking tours ("Dialogue Tours"), news releases, public information services and the EUVP. The Press and Public Diplomacy Section is headed by Anthony Gooch who has also been appointed a Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. (For more information on the public diplomacy strategy of the Delegation see Taking it to the US: The European Union's Greatest Public Diplomacy Challenge, Presentation by Anthony Gooch.) Another Delegation developing a comprehensive public diplomacy approach is the European Commission’s Delegation to Canada.This commitment is officially stated on the Delegation’s website. "It conducts an active public diplomacy and information service, aimed at informing Canadians about current developments in the European Union." In 2004 and 2005 the European Commission has opened calls for proposals on Public Diplomacy, Policy Research and Outreach Devoted to the European Union and EU-Canada Relations and awarded various grants for public diplomacy activities in Canada. Canada, like the US, is a country of long-standing cultural and linguistic links to Europe. Therefore, public diplomacy efforts have a sound foundation to build on. Special attention is given to exchange programs for young people operated within the Erasmus Mundus program, interparliamentary meetings, and business-to-business contacts as part of the Canada-Europe Round Table (CERT). Directorates General (DGs) The work of the delegations in promoting communications with citizens of countries outside the European Union is further developed by the Directorates General with external responsibility. According to Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge, the DGs and their information and communications’ units are "in fact, the key actors in EU public diplomacy in third-countries" . Being the primary foreign policy directorate, the DG External Relations (better known as the DG RELEX ) plays a central role in public diplomacy efforts. It disposes of an annual communication budget in the amount of 7 million Euro. The DG RELEX works closely with the Commissioner for External Relations and the other DGs with external remit such as Development, Trade, ECHO etc. This DG directs the European Neighborhood policy and Euromed, as well as all the Commission’s Delegations. It is the DG External Relations’ responsibility to make sure that the overall projection of the Commission is coherent and that there is a unified approach to shaping its image abroad. The DG Development has a significant public diplomacy potential since the EU has provided generous amounts of foreign aid to developing countries. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been active enough in promoting EU aid visibility. For this purpose the DG Development Information and Communication Unit has adopted an external Information and Communication Strategy 2005 – 2009 and started an information campaign on its support to the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) called "Europe Cares." The overall purpose of this campaign is to "address wide-spread ignorance about the EU’s position as the world’s most significant aid donor with activities promoting development objectives across the globe"http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/body/tmp_docs/external_strategy_en.pdf#zoom=100 The "Europe Cares" campaign will make use of the Internet and other media for its promotion campaign. The European Commission has launched a temporary website www.europe-cares.org and will show audiovisual spots on major European airlines and on the TV news channel EuroNews during September. The spots will be shown in 6 languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish) and feature themes such as health, education, poverty and environmental sustainability. "The European Union is committed to do ‘more, better and faster’," Commissioner Louis Michel said at the launch of the campaign, "we have taken the political lead in development to make poverty history. Between 2006 and 2010 we will increase annual development aid by almost 50% to over 66 billion EUR. Europe goes into the UN’s World Summit in New York next week with a clear pro-development agenda. To promote this agenda, we have chosen the slogan "Europe Cares"." Similar promotion campaigns are needed in other DGs such as the DG ECHO which is the world’s number one humanitarian aid provider. However, its case is much similar with that of DG Development in that it has a public diplomacy potential which hasn’t been fully utilized due to under-funding, under-staffing and not enough communications activity. Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge give several examples illustrating the poor branding of ECHO’s operations: it did not receive enough public credit for its role as the first institution to reach the Asian Tsunami; it endures serious competition for aid visibility from USAID, as a much more centralized, experienced and better funded institution; and it has trouble enforcing aid visibility clauses in aid-receiving countries. They also cite an official at the DG who reveals that ECHO is recruiting only two information officers for communication work covering the entire continent of Africa. While it is not part of the RELEX family, the Education and Culture Directorate General is also charged with important public diplomacy tasks, namely EU cultural diplomacy. The cultural exchange is particularly intensive between the EU countries themselves. It is carried out in the framework of programs such as Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci and others. Even if they do not constitute public diplomacy with third-countries, these programs provide valuable experience in cultural, educational and vocational exchange and might help develop similar capability with countries outside the EU borders. On the other hand, some of the exchange programs initially instituted for EU-citizens only are now open to third-countries as well, for example the countries from the European Economic area (Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway), but also countries with Association and Cooperation agreements with the EU. The partnership with the countries of Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union is within the framework of the PHARE and TACIS programs respectively. The Social, Cultural and Human dimension of Euromed provides for a very well developed mechanism for cultural exchange and cooperation with countries from the Mediterranean. In addition, all countries of the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and Central Asia are included in the Tempus (Trans-European Mobility Scheme for University Studies) program for university cooperation. Through the June 2000 Agreement of Cotonou, replacing the Lome Convention of 1975 – 2000, the EU and 77 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific regions pledge to preserve each other’s cultural heritage and values. Based on the close cultural, historical and linguistic links, the EU is in close cultural and educational partnership with the five North American countries as well. Examples include the EU-USA Cooperation in Higher Education and Vocational Training and the EU-Canada Cooperation in Higher Education and Vocational Training. Individual programs in higher education have also been set up with Japan – The EU-Japan Pilot Cooperation in Higher Education, Australia – The EU-Australia Cooperation in Higher Education and Vocational Training, and New Zealand – The EU-New Zealand Pilot Cooperation in Higher Education. Another program in higher education, open to third countries, is Erasmus Mundus. The program aims to support high quality European master’s courses with a "strong external projection" in order to attract students and scholars from around the world. It also provides assistance for Europeans to study abroad. The program’s budget is 230 million Euro for the five years (2004-2008) of its duration. "In concrete terms, Erasmus Mundus will support about 100 Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses of outstanding academic quality. It will provide grants for some 5,000 graduate students from third countries to follow these Masters Courses, and for more than 4,000 EU graduate students involved in these courses to study in third countries. The programme will also offer teaching or research scholarships in Europe for over 1,000 incoming third-country academics and for a similar number of outgoing EU scholars. Last but not least, Erasmus Mundus will support about 100 partnerships between Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses and higher education institutions in third countries."http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/mundus/index_en.html#2 European Union Visitors Program One of the oldest exchange programs of the European Union is the European Union Visitors Program (EUVP). It was instituted in 1974 with the US and later included Canada, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, and candidate-countries. The program’s initial goal was to promote understanding of the EU and form influential contacts with the political elites in the US. Therefore, a considerable influence on its development played the practice gained by American public diplomacy itself (for instance, as a model was used the International Visitors Program). The EUVP originated as an initiative of the European Parliament but responsibility was then shared in a joint steering Committee between the Parliament and the European Commission. In addition, the program differs from most of the Commission’s exchange programs in that it is not academically focused. It is directed towards young professionals who are in a position of becoming influential in the political life of their country, such as governmental officials, journalists, trade unionists, educators, officials of non-profit and non-governmental organizations. Today the program is playing an important role in the EU enlargement and regional cooperation strategies. An EUVP visit consists of an individual five- to eight-day program of meetings with EU officials at the EU institutions in Brussels, Strasbourg and/or Luxembourg. All programs are coordinated and arranged by the EUVP Secretariat and not by individual participants. Despite the well-developed concept, this public diplomacy mechanism of the EU remains underused. In a comprehensive study of the Program Giles Scott-Smith concludes that "the EUVP … is a flexible tool for establishing significant contacts and providing a means to discuss matters of mutual interest, as well as being a prestigious ‘calling card’ to project the EU’s presence abroad. Yet the inability of the Commission to match the original ambition of the Parliament with enough resources and infrastructural support confirms the view that the EU remains unsure of its use of public diplomacy and unwilling to sufficiently project its ‘soft power’ abroad. … Unless the Union asserts its international identity more, the EUVP will remain an under-utilized model for potential public diplomacy program." Such criticism remains common among authors who have researched the EU public diplomacy strategies. According to Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge, for example, "to date, the way that Europe and the EU communicate with third-country publics has been atomized and disjointed. There is arguably not enough co-operation between EU member states’ own public diplomacy organizations – and the capacity of the EU institutions to engage in public diplomacy activities is limited by a lack of resources and political will." European Union Soft Power Despite the above listed shortcomings in the implementation of a comprehensive EU public diplomacy strategy, the soft power resource and the potential of some of the long-established public diplomacy mechanisms of several EU-member countries such as Alliance Francaise, British Council, and Goethe Institute are enormous. Joseph Nye gives various examples of Europe’s advantages in the competition for global popularity, cultural and political attractiveness and influence. Many European states have a strong cultural attractiveness: half of the ten most widely spoken languages in the world are European. Spanish and Portuguese link Iberia to Latin America, English is the language of the United States and the far-flung Commonwealth, and there are nearly 50 Francophone countries who meet at a biannual summit at which they discuss policies and celebrate their status as countries having French in common. [… Though much smaller than the United States, Britain and France each spend about the same as the United States on public diplomacy. … The Europeans have a longer tradition and spend more, particularly in international cultural relations, an area in which France had the highest per capita spending, over $17 and more than four times that of second-ranked Canada; Britain and Sweden rank third and fourth. … Europeans provide 70 percent of overseas development assistance to poor countries – four times more than the United States. Europe also has ten times as many troops as the United States involved in peacekeeping operations under multilateral organizations such as the UN and NATO. … At the same time, many European domestic policies on capital punishment, gun control, climate change, and the rights of homosexuals are probably closer to the views of many younger people in rich countries around the world than are American government policies. The EU itself also accumulates a considerable amount of soft power due to its nature as a multilateral organization based on shared values and principles and its status as the world’s largest aid donor. The pursuit of European countries to find economic well-being, political unity and peace through multilateralism is a central asset of the EU. "The idea that war is now unthinkable among countries that fought bitterly for centuries, and that Europe has become an island of peace and prosperity creates a positive image in much of the world." Acknowledged should also be the role of the EU as a generator of democratic change in all Eastern European countries, which undertook wide-ranging political, economic and legal reforms in order to conform to the EU standards. Joseph Nye writes that "(EU) ‘soft power is demonstrated by the fact that not only millions of individuals but also whole states want to enter it’. … In Turkey, the desire to join the EU led the government to pass difficult legislation reducing the role of the military in politics and improving Turkey’s record on human rights issues." The EU has exercised a positive influence not only on candidate-countries, where the prospective integration and economic dividends have been a major incentive for change. Its appealing image in the rest of the world is built on its support of environmental issues, human rights, criminal law, and eradicating poverty. "The vast majority of Americans recognize this as well: nearly nine in ten agree that the EU can help solve world problems through diplomacy, trade, and development aid even though it is not as military powerful as the US." Considering both its accumulated soft power and the current programs and partnerships promoting and communicating its interests, it can be concluded that the EU has the capacity to pursue an extensive public diplomacy strategy. To date, the European Commission has been very active and successful in engaging with neighboring and membership aspiring countries, but not as devoted to developing a comprehensive and coherent communication strategy with third-countries. Various measures and programs have been applied, but lack of co-ordination, funding and political will is thwarting the realization of their full potential. If the activities of all DGs and Delegations are better coordinated and the experience gained from communications and exchange within the EU is put to use together with that of member-countries themselves, the EU could begin to project a much stronger and clearer image of itself to the world. This would be a policy beneficial not only to EU institutions, but to member-states as well. References 5. Explaining Enlargement, A progress Report on the Communication Strategy for Enlargement, DG Enlargement Information Unit, March 2002 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid. 9. European Infopolitik: Developing EU Public Diplomacy Strategy, Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge,Foreign Policy Centre, November 2005, p.18 10. Barcelona declaration, November 1995, Social, cultural and human chapter 11. Europe and the Mediterranean: towards a closer partnership, An overview of the Barcelona Process in 2002, European Communities, March 2003 12. Ein Europa der Voelker bauen. Die Europaeische Union und die Kultur, Europaeische Kommission, 2002 13. Europe and the Mediterranean: towards a closer partnership, An overview of the Barcelona Process in 2002, European Communities, March 2003 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 16. EU-funded TV channel would preach to Arab world, Andrew Beatty, EuropeanVoice.com 17. Europe and the Mediterranean: towards a closer partnership, An overview of the Barcelona Process in 2002, European Communities, March 2003 18. Diplomacy without a state: The External Delegations of the European Commission, Michael Bruter, Journal of European Public Policy 6 (2) (1999): 183-205 19. Ibid. 20. European Infopolitik: Developing EU Public Diplomacy Strategy, Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge,Foreign Policy Centre, November 2005, p.18 21. Ibid., p. 18 22. Ibid., p. 18 23. Ibid., p. 18 24. Ibid. 26. Ibid. 27. Ibid. 29. Mending the Unhinged Alliance in the 1970’s: Transatlantic Relations, Public Diplomacy, and the Origins of the European Union Visitors Programme, Giles Scott-Smith, Diplomacy and Statescraft, Vol. 16 No. 14 (December 2005) 30. Ibid. 31. European Infopolitik: Developing EU Public Diplomacy Strategy, Philip Fiske de Gouveia and Hester Plumridge,Foreign Policy Centre, November 2005, p.18 32. Soft Power. The Means to Success in World Politics, Joseph Nye, 2004 33. Ibid. 34. Ibid. 35. Ibid.